Regional health services
Peter WALSH (Murray Plains) (10:20): On behalf of the people of Echuca and Rochester I am again asking the government to divert even just a small slice of the billions of dollars that it is wasting on major project cost overruns to help lure more doctors to regional Victoria, because if we do not get them, and soon, our already besieged hospital system emergency departments will collapse from the workload as more and more people turn to them for medical treatment that does not even come close to being an emergency. When you are ill or you have a sick child and the local GP practice does not have an appointment for months or will not see you because they are not taking new patients, you have no choice, and the stopgap that is telehealth is not the solution. In fact for people looking for repeat prescriptions it becomes an expensive option as telehealth physicians can only prescribe for one month. I have people coming into my electorate office regularly or on the phone to my staff every day looking for answers that I cannot give them because this government cannot manage money, cannot manage the economy and most certainly cannot manage to get more doctors into regional Victoria.